Strong defense carries Lady Gators to 3-1 win
PERRYOPOLIS — The Geibel Catholic volleyball team used a strong defensive effort Thursday night to captured its first win over Frazier since 2008 after a 3-1 victory in the Section 2-A regular season finale for both teams.
The Lady Gators (10-4, 10-4) are in a tied with California for third place in the section behind second-place Carmichaels.
Geibel won the section showdown by scores of 23-25, 25-23, 26-24, 25-20.
“We switched some of our rotations around from the last time we played them,” Geibel coach Rick Watkins said. “This win really doesn’t mean much in the standings, as they were already locked in at the top spot. I guess this is a good win for our confidence heading to the playoffs. We want to win every game. This was just our night.”
Earlier in the week, the Lady Commodores (13-3, 12-2) clinched their ninth consecutive section crown and 10th in the last 12 seasons. Frazier defeated the section rival Lady Gators on the road, 3-1, on Sept. 26.
“We got to point the finger at ourselves,” Frazier coach Mandy Hartman said. “Everyone was off tonight and we didn’t play our best. Give Geibel a lot of credit, they put the pressure on us. We made too many mental mistakes. It wasn’t luck by them, they executed their game plan.”
Paige Bogozi had a double-double for Geibel with 15 digs and 12 kills, while Alexa Henckel and Lauren Tomasko chipped in with 25 digs apiece. Shannon Watkins dished out 30 assists and had four aces, while Amanda Antol added seven kills and five aces.
Skye Eicher led Frazier at the net with 17 kills, while Sierra Twigg totaled five kills. Logan Hartman (14 service points), Alexis Lovis (17 assists) and Gabrielle Alekson (10 service points) had steady performances in the loss.
Both squads will wait for the playoff brackets to be revealed on Monday.
“We always have room for improvement,” coach Hartman said. “This was an awful effort. Hopefully, we can learn from a night like this. We can’t just show up and expect to win. This section is so competitive. I have never seen a section like this in my 20 years. All four teams in our section can beat anybody in the playoffs.”
It was back-and-forth in the opening set as both teams traded points and rallies. Trailing 18-17, Frazier ended the first set with an 8-5 run to go up 1-0.
Logan Hartman started out the second set with three straight service points and the Lady Commodores raced out to a 12-8 lead.
The visitors countered with eight unanswered points and the run was capped off by a kill from Bogozi. Geibel tallied five of the final 11 points in the set to even things up at 1-1.
The Lady Gators jumped out to a 7-0 lead in third set, but the home team rebounded to knot things up at 13-13 after a kill and a block by Alekson and an ace by Lovis.
An ace by Alekson later in the set gave Frazier a 22-19 lead, but Geibel regrouped and ended the set with a 7-2 spurt that was capped off by a kill from Bogozi and a service point from Antol.
The Lady Gators started the fourth set with a 16-9 advantage, but the home team made one final push to tie things up at 17-17. Geibel made its final run of the night with an 8-3 spurt to secure the section triumph.
“They had some errors tonight and we took advantage of it,” coach Watkins said. “We didn’t make a lot of errors on our side. If we play Frazier 10 more times, they might beat us 10 times. The big difference tonight was blocking. We changed some things up front and things worked for us tonight.”
——–
Yough 3, Belle Vernon 2 – The Yough volleyball team secured the fourth and final playoff berth out of Section 3-AAA Thursday night with a 3-0 road win at Belle Vernon.
The Lady Cougars finish in fourth place with section mark of 5-7. Had the Lady Leopards (0-12) upset Yough, then Uniontown would’ve qualified for the playoffs with both teams at 4-8 and splitting the season series.
Belle Vernon opened with a 25-21 win in the first set. Yough won the next two, 25-10 and 25-17, but the Lady Leopards tied the match with a 25-22 win in the fourth set. Yough secured the win — and playoff berth — by taking the final set, 15-3.
——–
Beth-Center 3, Brownsville 0 – The Beth-Center girls volleyball team earned a share of the Section 3-AA title with Waynesburg Central Thursday night with a 3-0 victory over visiting Brownsville.
The Lady Bulldogs finish with a section record of 11-1 and improve to 13-2 overall. The Lady Falcons finish with a 2-10 section record.
Beth-Center won by the scores 25-17, 25-18, 25-12.
Mackenzie Crile led the Beth-Center offense with 26 assists. Kennedy Kuhns (5 aces, 8 kills), Kinlee Whited (10 kills, 4 aces), and Toni Elyea (6 kills) also contributed to the section-clinching victory.
——–
Laurel Highlands 3, Albert Gallatin 0 – Laurel Highlands swept past Albert Gallatin Thursday night to close the Section 3-AAA schedule with a 3-0 road victory.
The Fillies won by the scores 25-13, 25-18, 25-23.
Laurel Highlands’ Cassidy Podlogar nearly had a triple-double with 16 digs, 10 service points and nine kills. Maddie Wheeler finished with 20 assists and 7 digs. Emily Buwawa had 7 kills and 6 digs, while Angel Buwawa contributed 15 digs, 3 kills and 2 blocks.
Noelle Hall finished with 7 assists, 2 digs and 2 aces for the Lady Colonials. Megan Harkins had 8 digs, 3 blocks and 3 kills. Jayla Johnson finished with 6 kills. Odessa Hilliard added 4 kills and 4 digs.
——–
Carmichaels 3, Mapletown 0 –The Carmichaels volleyball team secured second place in Section 2-A Thursday night with a 3-0 victory against visiting Mapletown.
The Lady Mikes finish with a section and overall record of 11-3. The Lady Maples close with a section record of 5-9 and overall mark of 8-10.
Carmichaels won by the scores 25-10, 25-20, 25-19.
The Lady Mikes’ Aubree Ferek finished with a double-double with 16 service points and 11 digs, as did Grace Kerr with 16 digs and 18 assists. Micaela Ricco had a strong defensive effort with 17 digs.
Makenzie Cree led the Lady Maples with 18 digs, while Morgan Helmick finished with 17.